The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to primary switch election in peer groups.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Additionally, some embodiments of information handling systems include non-transient, tangible machine-readable media that include executable code that when run by one or more processors, may cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of methods described herein. Some common forms of machine readable media include, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, and/or any other medium from which a processor or computer is adapted to read.
Computer networks form the interconnection fabric that enables reliable and rapid communications between computer systems and data processors that are in both close proximity to each other and at distant locations. These networks create a vast spider web of intranets and internets for handling all types of communication and information. Making this possible is a vast array of network switching devices that make routing and/or forwarding decisions in order to deliver packets of information from a source system or first network node to a destination system or second network node. Due to the size, complexity, and dynamic nature of these networks, sophisticated network switching devices are often used to continuously make routing and/or forwarding decisions and to update routing and/or forwarding information as network configurations change.
To support backup and/or redundancy in computer networks, it is not uncommon for there to exist multiple paths or routes through the network between any two nodes. In some instances the parallelism is treated somewhat informally where, for example, the network switching devices communicate among themselves to identify shortest paths between two network nodes and to adjust these shortest paths when interconnections change as network links and/or network switching devices are added and/or removed and/or go up and/or go down. In some instances the parallelism is more formally treated, such as when two network switching devices are bundled into a peer group where some nearby network switching devices are coupled to both of the network switching devices in the peer group. This arrangement makes it possible so that either of the network switching devices in the peer group may forward network traffic between these nearby network switching devices. In addition, each of the network switching devices in the peer group may act as a backup network switching device for the other.
To support the peer group, the network switching devices in the peer group are typically coupled together using one or more network links that are often referred to collectively as an inter-chassis link (ICL). As long as the ICL remains up, the network switching devices in the peer group may monitor the status of each other and act as a backup device for the other network switching device when the other network switch device goes down. To account for the possibility that the ICL may go down, the network switching devices in the peer group may often elect one of the network switches devices to become a primary network switching device and the other to become a secondary network switching device. When the primary and secondary network switching devices detect a failure in the ICL, a common approach is to have the secondary network switching device shut down its network links with the nearby network switching devices and allow the primary network switching device to forward network traffic on behalf of the peer group. Unfortunately, many mechanisms for electing the primary and secondary network switching devices are static and do not generally take into account conditions in the peer group just before the ICL goes down. As a result, the static election mechanism does not always make the best decision for the primary and secondary network switching devices.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved methods and systems for electing primary and secondary network switching devices in peer groups.